Originally published September 11 2015
How big corporations form front groups to manipulate the American public and government
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) The largest corporations have entire budget line items dedicated to expanding brand and reach, including forming seemingly unrelated "front groups" that are really just propaganda wings for the company.
Of course, that includes Big Food and the biotech companies like Monsanto that push genetically modified organisms (GMOs), unhealthy and processed foods and other harmful substances, says noted health food expert and advocate Vani Hari, the "Food Babe."
In a recent post on her web site Hari identifies companies that use "hired experts" in order to push their own food agendas which are often not in the public's best interests.
"Every day more people are becoming aware of the chemical pesticides, synthetic food additives, antibiotics, and growth promoting drugs that are used to make conventional food products, and are choosing cleaner organic food thanks to you!" writes Hari, author of No. 1 bestseller The Food Babe Way.
Front groups pushing GMOs, antibiotics in livestock, pesticide use
"People like us are raising up against the companies that are creating these toxic chemicals and boycotting major brands that have been mainstays in American supermarkets for decades," she says.
Hari goes on to cite a just-released report titled, "Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications are Shaping the Story of Food," in which the authors note that more Americans are demanding transparency from food companies and agricultural interests – as evidenced by the explosion in the consumption of organic foods.
"The industrial food and agricultural sector spent hundreds of millions of dollars from 2009 to 2013 on communications efforts to spin the media, drive consumer behavior and advance its policy agenda," says the report's executive summary.
Other findings include:
-- $126 million was spent by 14 food industry front groups that often appear in the media as independent sources but are funded by and serve the interests of the industrial food sector. Six of these front groups have launched just since 2011;
-- Groups like the U.S. Farmers and Rancher's Alliance, whose partners include Monsanto, DuPont, Dow and Syngenta, and the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Food, created by the Grocery Manufacturer's Association to fight GMO labeling, are involved in generating propaganda;
-- More than $600 million spent by four major trade associations — CropLife America, BIO, Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the American Meat Institute — that promote and defend the agendas of pesticide, biotech and conventional food corporations (including but not limited to PR activities);
-- Tens of millions of dollars a year on communications campaigns by the federal check-off programs for beef, corn, soybeans and dairy; as well as hundreds of millions more spent to market companies and products in this sector. For example, in 2013 Monsanto alone spent $95 million on marketing.
"The increase of industry-sponsored spin comes at a time when big food and agrochemical companies are waking up to a new consumer," the report notes.
'We care about the land and soil'
Here are some of the groups involved and their principle officials – the "messengers," as the report refers to the front groups:
One of the largest groups – the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, actually an umbrella organization for about 80 other state and local groups – is headed up by Nancy Kavazanjian, who – along with her husband – farm some 2,100 acres near Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
Kavazanjian likes to tell people she and her husband are "environmentally conscience" farmers.
"We're specialized, but we're also very conscious of everything we do for the environment and everyone's well-being," she told Agri-View in December 2014 when she was named chairwoman of USFRA.
And yet, as you can see from the above chart, the group is funded by Monsanto, Dow Chemical and DuPont to "defend GMOs, pesticides [and] routine antibiotic use in livestock."
Kavazanjian isn't the only one who is not what she seems. You can view the entire report here.
The Food Babe's report is here.
Find out how you can keep your food pesticide and GMO free at FoodFreedom.news
Sources:
http://FoodBabe.com
Webiva-Downton.com
Agriview.com
NaturalNews.com
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